READY TO LOUP BACK?
Lefty might welcome return to Amazin’s
ANAHEIM — If the Mets wanted to lure Aaron Loup back to Queens, it sounds like the lefty reliever would more than consider it.
Loup waited and waited for the Mets to negotiate with his camp last offseason, but he couldn’t get any answers from the club’s wavering front office before he signed with the Angels on a two-year, $17 million deal.
“It took a little bit to get [the Mets] on the phone,” Loup said. “I had to stall [the Angels] for a little bit, as long as I could. And then eventually, everything we asked for [the Angels] kept giving to us. Couldn’t wait around any longer.”
Loup was honest about his disappointment that it didn’t work out with the Mets.
“I’m not going to throw a better season than what I had last year,” he said. “In a way, you’d love to run it back. At the same time, [the Angels] wanted me about as bad as I’ve ever been wanted over the course of my career. I can’t complain.”
At the time, the Mets were deep into their seemingly never-ending search for a president of baseball operations. Loup and his agents were trying to negotiate with Mets team president Sandy Alderson and his son, Bryn Alderson, who also plays a role in the front office. In November, the Mets finally pivoted from their intention of hiring a president of baseball operations and instead named Billy Eppler as general manager. Loup signed with the Angels three days later.
“They had a lot going on, which I understood as well,” Loup said. “It was kind of like, I know you guys are interested and probably want me back, so I was trying to stall, and stall. It got to the point where I couldn’t anymore.”
Loup, 34, had a career year with the Mets in 2021. The lefty posted a 0.95 ERA in 65 relief appearances and 56.2 innings. He quickly became a fan favorite, not just because of his exceptional numbers, but also because of his warm-up song, “Unapologetically Country As Hell” by Hardy that blared through Citi Field speakers, and most notably, his postgame interviews that almost always featured a Busch Light beer nearby or in his hand.
On Friday at Angels Stadium, Loup’s clubhouse setup included a mini refrigerator stacked with at least 15 Busch Lights adjacent to his locker.
“That’s been here from Day 1,” Loup said of the mini frig. “It’s the one thing I carried over. Hopefully, it’s still got some good luck in it.”
The journeyman reliever hasn’t yet found the same success with his new team that he enjoyed last year in Queens. Loup, who was drafted in the ninth round by the Blue Jays in 2009, has a 4.43 ERA in 24 relief appearances for the Halos this season. The Angels entered Saturday having won just one game in their last 15, and Loup’s last outing was over a week ago.
He started June on a better note, compiling three scoreless relief appearances with one hit allowed. But the results haven’t even been close to last season, when he strung together 23 consecutive scoreless outings across 19.1 innings from July 5 to Aug. 26 for the Mets.
“It’s been a grind,” he said. “Another thing I haven’t seen is this type of baseball — we found just about every way to lose a game I think. I think we about covered it. It’s been tough. But we got a win [on Thursday against the Red Sox]. Things are looking up hopefully.”
The Mets (39-21) do need a lefty reliever sooner rather than later, and if the Angels continue spiraling, Loup should be up for grabs. But he would have to step up and find some real success in the next several weeks before this year’s trade deadline to make such a scenario worth it for Eppler and the Amazin’s. And Loup alone likely wouldn’t solve the bullpen’s weaknesses.
For now, Chasen Shreve and Joely Rodriguez are the bullpen’s only left-handed options and both have largely struggled to put up results.
Rodriguez, whom the Mets acquired after trading Miguel Castro to the Yankees, has a 5.40 ERA in 25 outings and 20 innings this season. Shreve returned to New York on a minor-league deal back in spring training. He has a 3.86 ERA in 21 innings so far.
“I think a lot of things gotta go your way,” Loup said of why he was so successful last season. “I pitched well. But the ball’s gotta go right at guys. When you come out of games with guys on base, those guys gotta strand them too, which they did. We had a great bullpen, great staff last year.
“A lot of things gotta go your way to line up, to have the kind of year that I did. I’m very grateful for that. I wish the best for those guys over there. They’re having a pretty good year so far. Hopefully they can keep it going, except for these three games.”